US State Department cleared $83.5 billion in foreign military sales in FY20

WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department cleared $83.5 billion in Foreign Military Sales cases in fiscal 2020, the highest annual total of FMS notifications since the start of the Trump administration.

The dollar total — spread over 68 FMS cases notified to Congress — represent an increase of roughly $15 billion over FY19 figures. However, that dollar figure comes with a number of caveats that will lower the overall dollar figure of actual sales when negotiations are complete.

FMS notification figures represent potential arms sales that the State Department internally cleared, then passed to Congress through the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. The notifications do not represent final sales; if Congress does not reject the potential sale, it then goes into negotiations, during which dollar figures and quantities of equipment can change.

Congress has secretly blocked US arms sales to Turkey for nearly two years

However, while not solid dollars, notifications are a notable way of tracking interest in American arms from foreign partners, and are seen as a leading indicator of final sales to come.

Geographically, the Pacific region led the way with 25 requests totaling $44.1 billion in potential sales. Following that was Europe with 20 requests totaling $21.1 billion; the Middle East with 14 cases totaling $11.5 billion; and Africa with five cases totaling $5.1 billion. Central and South America (three cases) and Canada (one case) each totaled less than $1 billion.

July was the busiest month, with 15 announcements worth $32.5 billion, followed by September with nine announcements worth $17.4 billion. Japan was the largest single customer, with five cases worth an estimated $27.9 billion. The second-highest dollar total for one nation was Switzerland — which leads to the biggest caveat from these numbers.

https://news.yahoo.com/us-state-department-cleared-83-192215787.html

Fayetteville man gets 16 years for secretly recording minors having sex, porn of young children

Syracuse, NY – A Fayetteville man will spend more than 16 years in federal prison after admitting to secretly recording two minors having sex 23 separate times, while also amassing a large child porn collection that included young children.

Alan Longmore, 68, was originally charged in connection with his porn collection in October 2018. But the investigation also revealed that he’d personally taken 52 videos himself of the minors having sex, federal prosecutors wrote in court papers.

“This takes him out of the realm of a typical collector of child pornography who merely trades or otherwise amasses his collection,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Brown noted. “In this case, the defendant produced a substantial collection of (child pornography) by secretly recording the victims while they were engaged in sexually explicit conduct.”

As far as the internet porn collection, Longmore collected the illegal files using BitTorrent, a file-sharing program, court papers state.

Assistant Federal Public Defender Randi Bianco noted that Longmore did not encourage the two minors to have sex; he simply recorded it.

As far as the porn, Longmore said that he clicked on ads for pornography that ended up containing illegal images, Bianco continued in court paperwork. Longmore did not look at every file, she said, but nevertheless took responsibility for staying on sites that he knew contained illegal porn.

Bianco also noted a dramatic downturn in Longmore’s life fortunes: he’d been an executive at the Bank of New York making $130,000 a year before the 2007 financial crisis. By the time of his arrest, he was stocking shelves at Home Depot and Tops Friendly Markets. He’d also been married three times in relationships that included infidelity – perhaps by all three wives, the public defender said.

Bianco had sought 15 years in prison for Longmore; prosecutors had sought 17 1/2 years.

U.S. District Judge David Hurd sentenced him to 195 months, or 16 years and 3 months, in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release.

https://www.syracuse.com/crime/2020/10/fayetteville-man-gets-16-years-for-secretly-recording-minors-having-sex-porn-of-young-children.html

1,600 former Justice Department lawyers accuse Barr of using DOJ to help Trump in election

WASHINGTON – Former Justice Department attorneys expressed concerns Thursday that Attorney General William Barr is using the power of the agency to help President Donald Trump win reelection, citing statements Barr had made about mail-in ballots and the politically fraught inquiry into the Russia investigation.

"We fear that Attorney General Barr intends to use the DOJ's vast law enforcement powers to undermine our most fundamental democratic value: free and fair elections," according to an open letter signed by about 1,600 former Justice Department employees.

Barr has echoed the president's attacks on mail-in ballots as more states have allowed voting by mail due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"People are trying to change the rules to this, to this methodology – which, as a matter of logic, is very open to fraud and coercion – is reckless and dangerous and people are playing with fire," the attorney general said in an interview with CNN last month.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/10/01/william-barr-accused-1-600-lawyers-using-doj-help-trump-win/5881731002/

Israel, Lebanon Agree to U.S.-Mediated Talks to Resolve Maritime Border Dispute

Israel and Lebanon agreed to begin U.S.-brokered talks this month aimed at demarcating their maritime border, a step to resolve a dispute that would allow both sides to exploit natural-gas reserves in the disputed area off their eastern Mediterranean coasts.

The U.S.-mediated talks between the foes, who are still formally at war, will begin in about two weeks at a United Nations base in the city of Naqoura on the Lebanese side of their de facto land border. Israel and Lebanon have regular indirect contacts at the same base to discuss border violations.

“Our presumptive goal is to arrive at a peaceful resolution on the matter of the exclusive economic zone bordering between Israel and Lebanon in a way that benefits both neighboring nations,” said Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, who is overseeing Israel’s participation in the talks.

Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker said he would serve as the U.S. mediator of the discussions. Army officials will participate for Lebanon.

Lebanese officials, whose management of the country has been under fire since the August port explosion, are pinning their hopes on possible oil and gas reserves to steer the country away from economic ruin. “If the demarcation succeeds…that would be one of the reasons behind us paying our debt,” said Nabih Berri, Lebanon’s parliamentary speaker, who has led negotiations with Washington on Lebanon’s behalf.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-lebanon-agree-to-u-s-mediated-talks-to-resolve-maritime-border-dispute-11601580432